Italian PM 'surprised' by Obama's praise

Italy's Prime Minister Mario Monti said that he had been surprised by the words of praise received for his economic rescue efforts from US political and business leaders.Speaking at the end of a US tour on Friday, Monti told reporters: "I have to say that there were both public and private words of appreciation for Italy's efforts which went far beyond what I would have expected -- especially from President Obama who naturally has a role as an international opinion leader."

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So much for a quiet Christmas in the euro zone. The European debt crisis has been off boil for the past several months, but we all knew it was just a matter of time before the steam started rising again. The question was: What would turn up the heat? I would have put my money on Spain stumbling into a bailout program, but instead the spark has come from one of the key figures in the euro zone: Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti. The respected economist surprised financial markets on Saturday when he announced he would step down early, after the latest budget passed through parliament.

LONDON – Prime Minister Mario Monti helped stabilize Italy at the most perilous moment of its financial crisis, and he gets credit from many for starting the country on a long road of necessary structural reforms.

The result of the recent Italian elections produced an outcome that markets feared, but didn’t necessarily expect: a deadlocked Italian government.
Pier Luigi Bersani’s Democratic party, which was favored to win decisively heading into the election, emerged with a clear majority in the lower house of Parliament. But in the Senate, where seats are allocated according to a proportional share of voters in each region, the results were more muddled and left no guaranteed path to forming a functional government.

The chart below is very familiar to anyone who was observing the hourly turmoil in the European bond market in November of 2011, when Italian bonds crashed, when yields soared to record levels, and every downtick of the Euro could have been its last.

Conditions at the EU summit are breaking down more than expected thanks to a position taken by Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti. Acting like a spoiled brat in a game of marbles, Monti refuses to let anyone else play unless he gets the big green marble he wants.
In less colorful terms, Bloomberg explains Monti Withholds EU Growth Pact Approval Unless He Gets Interest Rate Relief.

The G-20 summit is over. As expected, the two-day summit produced nothing but bickering.
On day one, European Commission president Jose Barroso kicked things off by sniping at a Canadian reporter and blaming the US for Europe's problems.
UK Independent Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage responded by calling Barroso a "delusional idiot".